Louis woke, his head pounding worse than ever. He was afloat between sleeper plates. As his eyes adjusted to the dimness, he noticed walls with handholds. Ventilation fans whirred and a background hum droned.

This was a ship. He'd been drugged.

Best guess, Enzio had carried Louis from the bar. No one would have questioned, "My friend had one too many." And once on the street, via the nearest stepping disc, to a spaceport.

At great insult to his liver, he had found Achilles! Now to find out what the sociopath was up to. ...

Groaning, Louis reached out of the sleeper field and slapped the touchpoint. The collapsing field set him gently onto the lower plate. No lump in his hip pocket pressed into his butt. His comp was gone, and with it the hidden software by which to reach Sigmund in secrecy.

Did Sigmund have any idea where Louis was?

32.

On the cabin's fold-down desk Louis found detox pills, pain pills, and an insulated drink bulb of hot coffee (but nothing that had been in his pockets). A fresh jumpsuit hung in the tiny closet. The hatch was unlocked. The room even had a sonic shower. Compared to how he had boarded Aegis, Aegis, this was a walk in the park. this was a walk in the park.

But going aboard Aegis Aegis only his own sorry ass had been at risk. Now he meddled in the fates of worlds. only his own sorry ass had been at risk. Now he meddled in the fates of worlds.

Detoxed, showered, and in clean clothes, feeling almost human again, Louis ventured from his cabin. The bridge seemed the most likely place to find answers.

The ship was built in a General Products #2 hull and mostly configured like Aegis. Aegis. He sniffed the air: no trace of Puppeteer pheromones. A New Terran vessel, then. The bridge would be at the bow, not amidships as in He sniffed the air: no trace of Puppeteer pheromones. A New Terran vessel, then. The bridge would be at the bow, not amidships as in Aegis. Aegis. He went forward. He went forward.

Enzio, seated at the pilot's console, glanced up at the sound of footsteps. "Good, you're awake."

Louis took the empty copilot's seat. The mass pointer was active, and it showed no significant objects nearby. "This is where you explain. But please talk softly."

"Achilles said to bring you. I did."

"Keep going."

"It was time to leave, Achilles wanted you, and you were in no shape to discuss career options."

"I suppose not," Louis said. "Achilles wanted me?"

"He needs a crew. You must have impressed him."

Louis nodded. He impressed me back. He impressed me back. "Yah. You probably wonder why." "Yah. You probably wonder why."

Enzio chuckled. "You're taking things surprisingly well."

"Uh-huh. I'm older than I look. Old enough to know that screaming won't make you turn around the ship, will it? I'll save my complaints for Achilles. So when can I see him?"

Enzio gestured vaguely at his console. "A few hours till we rendezvous."

Another ship then. The grain ship in which Achilles had escaped from Hearth? "And then?"

"Then it's between you and Achilles."

Before they docked, Louis had met all the mercenaries. Counting Enzio and himself, five men and two women. Two disgraced former police, four career criminals, and Louis.

Just then, if Louis had had to come up with a label for himself, it would have been dilettante. Spy was merely another failed occupation for his resume. Yes, he had been right about Achilles gathering mercenaries. So what? Beyond whatever his disappearance might reveal, Louis had communicated nothing to Sigmund.

Most of the crew could fly the ship-by then Louis knew the vessel was called Addison Addison-but only Enzio considered himself a pilot. Louis returned to the bridge to offer his services as copilot.

"Sorry," Enzio said. "Another of Achilles' orders. You don't get access codes."

Too bad. It had occurred to Louis that simply activating hyperdrive as they docked might stop whatever Achilles had in mind. Not easily: Louis would have to position the ship near something vital. Even at maximum power, the normal-space bubble that tiny Addison Addison could project would barely impinge on a grain ship. Not cleanly: there would be casualties if he carved a chunk out of the hull. But Achilles' minions were, at a minimum, abetting a fugitive would-be murderer and war instigator. could project would barely impinge on a grain ship. Not cleanly: there would be casualties if he carved a chunk out of the hull. But Achilles' minions were, at a minimum, abetting a fugitive would-be murderer and war instigator.

The stratagem must have occurred to Achilles, too.

Maura somebody was in the copilot's seat. She was ex-police. Unlike the drunks with whom Louis had been tussling, she probably had had martial-arts training. Sigmund had trained the trainers who had trained most first responders. She was built like a wall and could probably beat Louis to a pulp.

He decided not to try for the controls.

Enzio and Maura let Louis observe from the bridge doorway. When they dropped from hyperspace, to his surprise the radar ping located two ships. From the blip sizes, both had #4 hulls.

"Calling Remembrance, Remembrance," Maura called. She had a booming, slightly nasal voice. "Remembrance, come in. This is come in. This is Addison. Addison."

"Remembrance," answered an unfamiliar voice in English. A Puppeteer, because no real-world woman ever sounded that sexy. Not even Alice- Louis tamped thoughts of Alice way way down. He had to stay focused. down. He had to stay focused.

After an exchange of authentication codes, the Puppeteer continued. "We have opened a cargo-bay hatch. Proceed to docking."

Fly into a hatch? Not an easy bit of piloting. "I've done that before," Louis said casually.

Enzio ignored him.

"Achilles escaped Hearth on one ship. What's the other for?" Louis asked.

"Supplies," Maura said. "Now be quiet."

Two GP #4s? What the tanj did Achilles have in mind? GP #4s? What the tanj did Achilles have in mind?

With a deft touch Enzio rotated Addison Addison bow-out from the larger ship, backed through the yawning hatch using only his attitude thrusters, and set his ship onto a cradle in the otherwise empty hold. With a thump something clamped onto bow-out from the larger ship, backed through the yawning hatch using only his attitude thrusters, and set his ship onto a cradle in the otherwise empty hold. With a thump something clamped onto Addison Addison's hull.

Addison brought more than mercenaries, Louis guessed. Achilles had just acquired a lifeboat. brought more than mercenaries, Louis guessed. Achilles had just acquired a lifeboat.

Achilles chose the empty cargo hold he had come to consider his audience chamber to interview Louis Wu. At the appointed time, he heard a soft, respectful trilling. Achilles recognized Clotho's voices. "You may enter," Achilles sang.

Clotho entered first. "Excellency," he intoned, heads held low respectfully. Louis came next, looking all around, followed by two Citizen crew.

"Leave us," Achilles sang. Clotho and the crew withdrew, closing the door behind them.

Louis stood tall with hands clasped behind his back. "Did you bring me here to kill me?"

"If I did not trust you, Louis, would we meet alone?"

Louis shrugged. "My escorts likely remain just outside the door. Holding stunners, I think. You wouldn't risk potentially lethal weapons near you. It's easy enough to toss a stunned person out an air lock."

Achilles looked himself in the eyes. "You have learned to understand us, I see."

"So will will you have me killed? You will not have forgotten that I stunned you." you have me killed? You will not have forgotten that I stunned you."

Achilles sat astraddle a comfortably padded bench. He stretched a neck briefly to point at a human-style chair. "Sit. No, I have not forgotten. But Nessus was your hindmost, and you followed his orders."

"Nessus." Louis spat on the floor. "That's what I think of Nessus. If he had any honor, I would be home by now, a rich man."

"Without memories of your adventure," Achilles reminded.

"Without nightmares. You can't imagine how often I dream of that Pak ship filled with corpses."

"Let me share something with you. I have come to learn Beowulf Shaeffer is your ... I believe the term is stepfather. I knew Beowulf. I respected him a great deal. When I worked in Human Space for General Products, I hired him twice. And And I paid him in full both times." I paid him in full both times."

"Keep talking," Louis said.

"Nessus treated you badly. He poisons the mind of the Hindmost, thus serving the Concordance badly. And so it falls to me to end the threat of the Gw'oth." And to take command of Hearth, and destroy my enemies, as my reward.

"I have watched you work, Louis, and come to respect your talents. Join me. Be an asset to our cause and teach Nessus the lesson he deserves."

"Two ships against a Gw'oth war fleet? I didn't think Citizens went in for suicide missions."

Achilles was unaccustomed to being questioned. He reminded himself he valued the human's independent mind. "We have weaponry the Gw'oth cannot even suspect."

"Pak technology." Louis narrowed his eyes in thought. "And when we're done, Achilles? Will you honor Nessus' bargain?"

"When we succeed everything changes, for the herd cherishes those who can keep them safe. Baedeker will be gone and I will be Hindmost. The reward of the Hindmost will vastly overshadow whatever paltry reward Nessus might have provided." Or fail me, and you will will go out the air lock. go out the air lock.

"And I've watched you at work," Louis said. "You do not take no for an answer. So tell me where I start."

Louis's first assignment was entirely mundane. What Maura had called a supply ship turned out to be a Ministry of Science research vessel. The New Terrans got to off-load most of its supplies to Remembrance. Remembrance.

Sigmund knew from Nessus that a Concordance research ship had gone missing.

No one volunteered what the other vessel would do after the cargo transfer. Skulk around Hearth, coordinating with Achilles' loyalists, Louis supposed.

The two big ships flew in tandem, a few kilometers apart. The New Terrans shuttled between cargo holds by stepping disc. Louis asked for his pocket comp back to use as a stepping-disc controller. Enzio declined but found Louis a spare computer.

For the largest items they used floaters to shift cargo onto freight-sized discs. With hold gravity turned down the crates were light, but they still had inertia and, all too often, awkward sizes and shapes. It was hard, mindless work, and it left Louis fretting about how to reestablish contact with Sigmund.

Packaged emergency rations. Vats of biomass for synthesizers. Synthesizers. Stepping discs. Space probes, basketball-sized, built inside General Products #1 hulls. Puppeteer autodocs and pressure suits. Portable power sources. Lab instruments. Cable reels. Equipment consoles. Spare parts for shipboard systems. Raw materials for machine shops.

Three of the New Terrans could read Puppeteer labels, which was fortunate because Louis could not. They had to know what was what to appropriately deliver the goods to holds and storerooms, labs and workshops, closets and pantries throughout Remembrance. Remembrance.

The ministry vessel also carried tens of powerful lasers. For experiments into long-range communication or improved fusion devices, Louis supposed-or so Achilles, as Minister of Science, might once have justified equipping a research ship. The lasers would make excellent weapons. Puppeteers unwired the lasers and secured them in crates that the humans moved.

Then things got interesting.

At the back of the last cargo hold, looming larger than anything Louis had yet handled, were a dozen or so enormous black slabs. No matter how low they dialed gravity, these things were huge. huge. Inertia did not care about gravity. The monoliths would be tough to move. Inertia did not care about gravity. The monoliths would be tough to move.

"What are these?" he asked Maura.

She looked up and down several slabs. "The labels only say, 'MAIN EXTERIOR HOLD.' "

Near deck level each monolith had what looked like a service bay. Louis released a latch and slid open the access panel. He uncovered fat connectors for power hookups, skinny connectors for fiber-optic cables, and little digital readouts.

Did these slabs get wired together? In his mind's eye, he pictured something like Stonehenge.

Sigmund, in one of his war stories, had described something like that. A device from the long-ago conflict with the Pak. One of the unsuccessful, homegrown planetary drives that instead tore worlds to gravel.

That Achilles controlled such a device made Louis's blood run cold.

33.

The Fleet of Worlds, slowly but steadily accelerating toward galactic north since the discovery of the core explosion, had attained almost half light speed. (The New Terrans, who had for decades pushed their planetary drive closer to redline to get some separation from their former masters, traveled a bit faster still.) Remembrance started with Hearth's normal-space velocity and quickly matched course and speed with the Gw'oth war fleet rushing its way. started with Hearth's normal-space velocity and quickly matched course and speed with the Gw'oth war fleet rushing its way.

Louis's experience in the Wunderland civil war-greatly embellished, because who could know otherwise?-made him the expedition's lone military veteran. Enzio remained the leader of the combat crew, but Louis's veteran status made him tolerated on the bridge. Even when Enzio was not running weapons drills. Even though Clotho, the ship's hindmost, seemed skeptical about Louis.

It probably helped that after the cargo-loading exercise, Puppeteers and New Terrans alike knew that Louis could not read Citizen writing.

He couldn't. But Louis had spent a long time on Aegis Aegis' bridge, comparing readouts on his console with the displays on the Puppeteer version, watching Nessus operate his controls.

Louis had a tanj good idea what most of Remembrance Remembrance's bridge instruments had to say- Enough to begin to worry Achilles might actually be able to win win his war. his war.

If a sphere could be said to have a midsection, Remembrance Remembrance's bridge occupied most of its waist. Concentric circles of consoles ringed the deck. Most consoles and crash couches accommodated Puppeteers, but one cluster was designed for humans. The combat cluster.

Enzio drilled his team two shifts every day. While Remembrance Remembrance was in hyperspace they drilled with simulators. When was in hyperspace they drilled with simulators. When Remembrance Remembrance dropped back to normal space they drilled with live instruments and shot at target drones. They practiced with anti-space-junk systems. They practiced targeting manually. And Louis, to maintain his credibility-and with it, free run of the bridge-had to demonstrate weapons competence. dropped back to normal space they drilled with live instruments and shot at target drones. They practiced with anti-space-junk systems. They practiced targeting manually. And Louis, to maintain his credibility-and with it, free run of the bridge-had to demonstrate weapons competence.

Why did they keep hopping through hyperspace? The New Terrans claimed not to know and the bridge crew would not say. Whatever the reason, after every emergence Remembrance Remembrance disgorged squadrons of free-flying spacecraft: most of the probes Louis had helped unload from the Ministry of Science vessel. Hyperwave buoys, Louis guessed, judging from the associated flurries of activity at the bridge's comm console. He could not imagine why they deployed so many relays, so close together. disgorged squadrons of free-flying spacecraft: most of the probes Louis had helped unload from the Ministry of Science vessel. Hyperwave buoys, Louis guessed, judging from the associated flurries of activity at the bridge's comm console. He could not imagine why they deployed so many relays, so close together.

"Redeploy drones," Enzio called for the tenth time that shift.

A small fraction of the little space probes-still numbering in the dozens-were target drones. Each drone carried thrusters, a fusion reactor, and optronics for guidance, comm, and sensing.

"Drones repositioned," the stringy-maned Citizen named Hecate reported from a supervisory console. He was one of the few Puppeteers aboard who spoke English. "Thrusters active. Stealth active."

A stealthed General Products hull was very very stealthy, actively canceling both neutrino probes and electromagnetic energy across the spectrum. It gave only two hints to its presence. stealthy, actively canceling both neutrino probes and electromagnetic energy across the spectrum. It gave only two hints to its presence.

The first clue, but only in one very specific direction, was a jet of neutrinos. Every GP hull blocked neutrinos to hide the emissions of its onboard fusion reactors-except in one small area left transparent to the particles. Otherwise the neutrino flux from the reactors would accumulate, bouncing inside forever. Over time there might be consequences. Puppeteers built these things, after all.